


Evenly Distributed

by tielan



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Carrows Reign at Hogwarts, Dumbledore's Army, Gen, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Freeform, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-12
Updated: 2017-02-12
Packaged: 2018-09-23 18:32:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9670919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tielan/pseuds/tielan
Summary: They can do this. They can survive. Theywill.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lirin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lirin/gifts).



> Treat!

Of all the things Neville might ever have said of Luna, ‘reliable’ is not the one that first springs to mind.

“It’s going to get worse,” she says as she waves her wand to wrap the poultice firmly around his head. “The punishments, I mean. Now that the Carrows know to look for you— There!” Her fingers smooth the bandage over his brow, and her finger slides under a forelock of hair, loosening it so it flops over the bandage. Then she smiles. “Your head should get better, although your hair will be a bit smelly for the next few days unless you wash it.”

He’ll live with slightly smelly hair in exchange for a head that no longer throbs. And even as Neville sits back in the chair, he finds the pulse in his head lessening enough that he can think again.

“Thanks for that. Where’d you find the recipe?”

“Oh, something Dean said about Muggle cures and how his mother used to make them.” Luna smiles vaguely as she waves her wand and the bandages and jar of poultice mix float over to one of the cupboards in the classroom they’re in. “I found a book in a Muggle store over the summer. Although I’m a little surprised there wasn’t any mention of Bithwort flowers. Bithwort flowers are good for healing everything. But they can be difficult to find.”

Neville grins. “Yeah, probably. Although if you could find some, we could sure use it. I think you’re right. The punishments are going to get worse.”

He eyes the fading bruise on Luna’s cheek, care of her interruption in the midst of their Wizarding Supremacy class on some divergence about half-blooded wizarding royalty. She sees him looking and smiles. “Don’t worry, Neville. It’s healing.”

It’s not the injury that he’s worried about – at least, not what he’s most worried about.

It’s the fact that nobody’s heard from Harry since Ginny’s brother’s wedding. Not even Ginny herself, who Neville had expected might know something. But he can’t ask – Ginny’s got enough to worry about right now with her parents and her brothers fighting Voldemort, Ron missing with Harry, and Harry himself...

It’s how it’s getting harder to pass messages to the others fighting back against Voldermort – mostly the old gang from Dumbledore’s Army – with the Carrows working out who the ringleaders are, and their sights set specifically on Neville.

It’s that some of the younger students have started to crumble under the pressure, reporting people for infractions to the Carrows. And they’re not just Slytherins, either - although blessed Merlin, no Gryffindors yet. Still, angry as it makes him to know that they’re being betrayed by the people they’re trying to help, Neville can’t find it in himself to blame them – after all, didn’t he do the same thing back in first year, trying to stick to the rules while Harry was trying to fight Voldemort? He didn’t know what was at stake, and neither do the younger ones.

“They’re still alive,” he murmurs, more to himself than Luna. “They’ve got to be.”

“They are.” The smile is luminous.

“How do you know?”

“If I had an enemy who everyone knows was my enemy, and I killed him, I’d want everyone to know that I’d won. At least, I guess I would if I were the Dark Lord.”

“No news is good news? Yeah, that’s a good one.” The thought of the others still out there makes him smile and he shoves his hands into the pockets of his robes, glad of a moment to feel...encouraged. Like this isn’t desperate times and desperate straits. “Thanks, Luna.”

Her eyes blink at him, solemnly. “We’re in this together, Neville. You and me and Ginny.”

“Yeah, but it’s not just us,” he reminds her, thinking of the other students who have risked punishment, who’ve spoken out against Snape and the Carrows. “There are others, and we need to be working _together_...”

He trails off as his finger brushes against something hard and metallic. When he pulls it out, moonlight glints across the face of the fake Galleon Hermione bespelled back in their fifth year, so the group of them learning actual Defence Against the Dark Arts could know when to meet without being intercepted by Umbridge.

How simple things had been back then!

Luna is regarding it with a dawning realisation. “Neville! Dumbledore’s Army!”

“Yeah, good times, right?” And then he sees what she means and sits bolt upright. “We can use it—”

“—to arrange meetings!”

“To get the word out!”

“To call each other.”

“To co-ordinate! That’s brilliant, Luna. Just what we need!”

Drawing his wand, Neville touches it to the Galleon, and feels it vibrate with a purpose that matches the rush of excitement in his veins. They can do this. They can survive Snape and the Carrows, and Hogwarts, and Voldemort until Harry defeats him.

They _will_. 

_“The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed."_  
  
― William Gibson ~  
The Economist, December 4, 2003

 


End file.
